


How does one Define a Hero?

by JaySkyline1118



Series: What Makes a Hero? [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Assume Ned's family's pretty rich, BAMF Peter, But also pretty sure they have to be cause Midtown and house in NY and all, Comic Book Science, Ned is a genius, independent Peter, we are now in the infinity war arc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 13:53:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19725004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaySkyline1118/pseuds/JaySkyline1118
Summary: While Peter isn't chasing the title of a hero anymore, that doesn't mean he's not protecting the people. So when a donut descends from the sky with a crazy alien doing a villain speech... well it's a good thing he has Ned (the resident teen genius) on his back.





	How does one Define a Hero?

Peter hadn’t been planning to ruin another field trip (he promises!), but a giant donut descending from the sky is hard to miss. And while he gave up the title of hero (Avenger more specifically), that didn’t mean he gave up protecting his people. So with a distraction created (thanks Ned), Peter swung himself out of the bus and towards the fight.

Iron man (of course it was him - who else really in NY) greeted him in the scene. “Underoos, glad you could join us.” 

“Mr. Stark. What’s this guys’ problem?”

If Mr. Stark noticed the lack of usual exuberance, he didn’t comment. “Uh, he's from space. He came here to steal a necklace from a wizard.”

At that moment, a figure bound in a red cloak zoomed by them. “Kid that’s the wizard. Get on it.”

With a sharp nod, Peter swung after the wizard. After a few minutes of following him through the city, he finally caught the airborne wizard with his webs - only to have a blue light start beaming up the wizard, and consequently, himself. With one web connected to a nearby building and the other straining against the blue beam, Peter let out a muffled cry in pain. 

At his cry, a voice in his ear pop up with “Do you require assistance?”

Peter’s eyes, (both real and suit wise) went wide. “Ned?!”

“Not quite. Hello, I’m Ned as Electronic Device or NED for short. Ned the human has already apologized for the lack of creativity and the input of his own voice in the sound system.”

“Wait, Ned put an AI in the suit?”

“I am not an AI, but rather the product of extraterrestrial technology merged with the terran AI KAREN.” said the voice, sounding rather miffed. “I’ll be contacting you over to Ned.” 

The blue beam increased in intensity, causing Peter’s arms to stretch even more. He could start to hear the snaps of web strands. “Okay Ned, I’m in a situation right now - and we are changing some things about the N E D.”

Ned simply ignored the last part of Peter’s sentence. “I can see that. Did you get around to reading the blueprints of the suit I gave you?”

“No, you gave them to me last night.”

“Okay then,” Ned sighed. “Say ‘activate Yo-Yo webs - right’”

“Activate Yo-Yo webs - right Peter dutifully repeated. Then, like a yo-yo, his right-hand webs retracted back into their canister. “Oh my god, Ned this is so cool. Now I won’t have to waste the webs-”

“Peter watch out!”

The warning came just a bit too late. The wizard, retracted by Peter’s webs, came sailing towards Peter, crashing into him and sending both of them plummeting down from the sky.

“This isn’t good.” Peter was frantically searching the sky for any stable buildings (alien invasions really brought them down), looking for anything to web on to. Then he realized, “I’m floating. Ned, did you install any flying levitating tech into the suit?”

“Uh… no?”

A deep voice spoke above him. “While I thank you for the rescue. I would appreciate if you would dispel your webs.” He pointed at the webs decorating the strangely animated cloak.

Peter awkwardly looked away. “They’ll dissolve in like 2 hours?” He tried for a sheepish smile, but by the deadpan look on the wizard’s face, it didn’t seem like he was amiable to Peter’s situation. The wizard - Dr. Strange, he learned - landed on the rubble of New York City. Iron man, with an asian man (wizard probably, he was dressed pretty similarly to Dr. Strange) joined them in a few moments. 

Mr. Stark nodded at us. “Strange. Underoos. What happened to Squidward?”

“A tactical retreat.” said Dr. Strange “He will be back. It would be in our best interest to build a bulwark against another invasion.”

Mr. Stark retracted his armor and sighed. “Okay, I’ll see about contacting Cap and seeing what they’re up to.” He motioned to Dr. Banner and Peter. Bruce, you can stay at the Avengers facility. Spidey, you need a ride to MOMA?”

Peter shook his head. “I’m good, I’ll see you around Mr. Stark.” He waved to the group. “It was nice meeting you all.” He fired a web towards a still standing street light and swung up towards MOMA. Once he got far enough from the group, Peter landed on a rooftop. “Hey NED, could you connect me to Ned again?” God that sounded so weird.

“Right away Peter.”

“Yeah, the field trip’s kinda canceled,” Ned said as soon as the call connected. “I guess an alien invasion would do that.”

“Makes sense.” Peter stood up and started making way towards the edge of the roof. “Is the school canceled as well?” 

“That too. You should come over so we can talk about your new suit.”

Peter nodded. “Probably a good idea. Let me call May real quick and I’ll swing over to your house.”

“See you soon” 

NED, as soon as Ned hung up, said, “would you like me to call May Parker?”

“Uh, yeah, thanks NED.”

After a short silence - “Peter I’ve been worried sick! Your teacher couldn’t find you and you weren’t receiving your calls.” 

“May I’m okay I promise. I just got separated from Ned during the commotion and I had to seek some kind of shelter.” Peter paused “Actually I was going to ask if it was okay to stay at Ned’s until you came home tonight.”

May sighed. “I think I’m going to be stuck at the hospital until late today, alien invasion and all. If Ned’s parents don’t mind, you can sleep over at his today.”

“Thanks, May, larb you!”

“Larb you to Peter.”

With May’s permission, Peter started to swing towards Ned’s house and entered (in what really seemed like it was going to be a pattern) through the open window. “Hey Ned”

“So what was that weird donut today?” Ned gasped “Was it aliens? Did it implant eggs in you - are you traumatized by this experience?”

Peter scrunched up his face is confusion “What no! Ned! I mean yeah-”

“Oh my god it did lay eggs-”

“NO, no not the egg part the ship is alien tech part.” before Ned could fire off any more questions he quickly said, “and I don’t know anything about anything except that the alien was there to take a weird necklace off a wizard.”

Ned pondered for a moment. “Would Mr. Stark know?”

“I mean yeah probably.” Peter shrugged. “He was there after all.”

“Okay then. Do you have your computer?” Once Peter took it out to confirm he did indeed have his computer, Ned plugged a USB into it. “That’s the digital copy of the blueprints I gave you yesterday. Read it while I attempt to get more information than what you just told me.”

“How are you going to get more information? It’s not like the aliens have a hackable network.”

“But Mr. Stark does.”

Peter’s jaw dropped. “Is it even possible to hack into FRIDAY?”

“I did say attempt. Just read the blueprints, Peter.”

After a while, Ned, in a whispery voice, said, “Okay, I’m in.”

“Holy shit are you serious?”

Ned ‘looked’ at Peter. “No Peter I just felt like saying it.”

Peter sputtered “I- okay what did you find?”

“So Mr. Stark doesn’t have much. It was on record from a while ago, like the first invasion while ago, that a titan named Thanos was coming with an army. Then Ultron was created with the help of something called a mind stone which - woah - was encased in Loki’s scepter and was taken by Hydra until Ultron found it.” Ned’s eyebrows rose up “I feel like this is way over your usual hero stuff.”

“Is there anything more?”

Ned clicked onto a different screen. “That was essentially it for Mr. Stark. If he found out anything today, it’s not online yet.” As Peter began to speak, Ned held up a hand. “But I looked into some SHIELD files and they have a bit more. They’ve known the existence of powerful artifacts created with the universe itself for a while. An agent named Carol Danvers confirmed the existence of infinity stones - 6 stones in total. That’s all I could find. Not quite sure they connect yet though.”

Peter gestured at Ned for a pencil. Once Ned handed him one, he ripped out a piece of paper and started writing all the information. “Okay, so. Dr. Strange, that the wizard I was fighting with, was almost taken by the aliens and Mr. Stark said that they wanted his necklace. My bet is that he has one of the stones in the necklace, but I still don’t know who would want them.”

“A lot of people would want the power of those stones Peter.”

“Ugh. True.” He flopped back onto Ned’s bed. “I don’t think we can figure out what’s going on right now without, you know, revealing to everyone we know more than we should.”

“And that’s a bad idea why?” Ned walked over to Peter’s computer and took out the USB. “Peter, it’s not a bad idea to have back up. I don’t like the idea of you going up against aliens without backup. I know you have some trust issues with Mr. Stark and god knows how the rest of the Avengers would take to a teenage vigilante, but this is bigger than anything you’ve ever encountered.”

“I know, but I don’t plan to get involved here, gonna stick to the low-level stuff.”

Ned sighed. “I don’t believe a word you said, but I’m gonna pretend you’re going to listen to me.”

They sat in silence for a bit. Just the two of them, thinking of the other times they were the same spot. When the biggest danger was sneaking out snacks from the top cabinet. 

“Peter, no matter how vigilante you’re going, or your moral code at this point, you have a giant hero complex. I really can’t imagine you not getting involved.” Ned stood up and pulled out a duffle bag from the top of his closet. “Go over there and change out of your suit. I have some of your clothes in the closet from the last time you came over. We’re going to put more protections in your suit. If you’re fighting against alien tech now, you’re going to have to have more than the webs.”

Peter looked over at Ned in awe. “You hacked into FRIDAY and SHIELD and now you’re making spider gadgets. How did I never notice how smart you were?”

“Peter, I’m the top student in the best tech school in the US. You are, as MJ says, pretty dense if you didn’t notice this.” 

“Hey!”

“Just give me the suit Peter.”

\---------------------Ned Engineering break----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Okay, here’s your suit back.”

“What does it do?” Peter lifted the suit. “It feels heavier?” He felt around the suit. “Woah, is this a belt?”

“Yeah, sit down. We’re gonna go through the updates together - better than throwing you a blueprint you’d never read.”

“You gave it to me for a night.”

“Not important - now listen. {these are from various spidey comics - after all, Peter is still Peter and this one has a Ned and access to alien tech - but yeah, I’m stretching a bit of comic science} Your belt has a few things. I’ve attached a few more web canisters that you can fill up when you get home. A mini recorder for any recording purposes and a drone for general drone use. Your web shooters also got a few upgrades. Other than the yo-yo webs, there are impact webs, which are web balls that explode into webs on impact, and electric webs. They all activate with NED.”

“Yeah, on that point, can we change NED into something else? It’s confusing.”

“I, being a great GITC, predicted you would say that. My new solution.” Ned paused dramatically. “ETTA are you online?”

A distinctly male britsh voice echoed around the room. “Hello, Ned. How may I be of assistance?”

Ned grinned. “Meet Extra-Terrestrial Technological Assistant, or, for short, ETTA.” 

“Is ETTA male or female cause I can’t tell. And why does it have a british accent?”

ETTA’s voice echoed around the room. “While I have a voice most would correlate to male, I essentially have no gender, Peter.”

“Yeah that.” Ned shrugged. “It’s kinda weird for technology to have gender for me. If ETTA ever develops enough of a personality, they can decide on their own. And I found a different voice file in FRIDAY’s code so I decided to use it - may as well, it’s clearly not in use.”

At that moment, Peter’s phone started to ring. 

“Hello?”

May’s voice came through the phone. “Morning Peter. I’m coming around to pick you up from Ned’s in like 10 minutes.”

“Uh…” Peter glanced at the clock, which read 8:36 am. “Yeah, I’ll be down in 10, thanks May.” He hung up and sent a sheepish smile to Ned.

Ned smiled back. “Guess we stayed up all night. Here, I’ll help you pack everything.”

As Ned and Peter finished packing away the engineering mess they had created, Ned tapped Peter lightly on the back. When he turned around, Ned spoke. “Peter, I understand that you can’t just walk away when there are people in danger. But you need to, at the very least, think about your own mortality. Sure you’re enhanced, and I did my best to protect you, but in the end, you are still human. Can you at least promise, for me and May, that you’ll be careful?” 

“Of course Ned. I always do my best to come back to you guys.” A knock sounded downstairs. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” Peter flashed a smile in his direction. “I’ll see you at school!”

The door closed. Once Ned was sure Peter was out of hearing range (enhanced range, that is) Ned spoke again. “ETTA, please run a search for all members of former and current Avengers. Note their location and record their personal numbers, please. Peter’s gonna need some backup for this.”

“Of course Ned.”

“Thank you.”


End file.
